William Golding encompasses an abundance of symbolism in his book ‘Lord of the Flies’. From the island to each and every kid, all are symbolic representations of Golding’s notion of the true nature of mankind. Mankind, depicted in an allegorical novel of a couple of boys from England between the ages of six and twelve who have crash landed on an island during the Cold War in the 1950s. One of the notable symbols Golding incorporates is Jack’s dazzle paint.
Jack, a twelve-year-old boy who is the leader of the ‘hunters’ who consist of a choir group, first brings up the idea of using dazzle paint after an unsuccessful attempt at killing a pig. The dazzle paint, when applied to the skin, would help camouflage Jack and his hunters to sneak up and kill the pig. However, this was not the only aptitude of the dazzle paint. As time progressed in the novel, Golding made the dazzle paint symbolize the gateway to barbarity and savagery in a man instead of it being used as mere camouflage to killing a pig for some food.
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Initially, the dazzle paint Jack craved and eventually got ahold of was meant and thought to be used for camouflage to stay hidden from the pig as Jack and his crew of hunters hunted. “They don’t smell me. They see me, I think. Something pink, under the trees” (p.63). After Jack had failed to kill the pig that ran away, his frustration led him to blame himself and his crew of hunters for the lack of stealth they had, and instead for their lack of fortitude, to kill the pig. Jack considered that he was being too easily spotted by the pig. Therefore, he resorted to the solution of using dazzle paint for camouflage. “‘For hunting. Like in war. You know – dazzle paint. Like things trying to look like something else –’. He twisted in the urgency of telling. ‘ – like moths on a tree trunk’” (p.63). Jack just wants to look like something else to not be effortlessly seen by the pig. This shows how Jack initially wants to use the dazzle paint as mere camouflage, comparable to how a moth uses camouflage to blend in on a tree trunk.
As time progressed, however, the initial use was distorted into a concoction of inhumanity and barbarity. It gave Jack the excuse to do abhorrent things because it made him feel savage. “We’ll raid them and take fire. There must be four of you; Henry and you, Robert and Maurice. We’ll put on paint and sneak up” (p.136). Jack and his hunters would go to the zenith of wrongdoing, hiding behind the dazzle paint. When they plan to do nefarious things, they would put it on. The dazzle paint made the hunters duplicitous and completely changed their sense of civilization and morality. It made them different persons with different identities. When the hunters applied the dazzle paint, they left their civilized bodies behind, and with Golding’s image of the true, cruel nature of man, they would do heinous things for the simple rationalization that they were not themselves. They were, as Simon said, beasts. Along with the actions of Jack and his hunters, the dazzle paint was symbolized as a gateway to savagery in a direct context as well. “‘But they’ll be painted! You know how it is’. The others nodded. They understood too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought. ‘Well, we won’t be painted’, said Ralph, ‘because we aren’t savages’” (p.172). This shows directly that the dazzle paint that Jack and his hunters put on depicted savagery and barbarity. The paint is a mask that shelters ethics and opens the gates to chaos and self-desire. The hunters would do stuff that they normally wouldn’t do with the dazzle paint. The paint hides their shame from theft and murder.
The use of the dazzle paint evolved over time, changing from its initial use to make hunting more efficient, and to hide from the shame of committing savage acts. Jack and his crew of hunters used the dazzle paint as an excuse to be inhuman and uncivilized. This was William Golding’s notion of the true nature of mankind in ‘Lord of the Flies’. Mankind was cruel, and if given complete freedom from order, man will wreak havoc and will do cruel things as he submits to his desires. Man will do wrong and will dismiss the right if given the chance. William Golding indubitably makes the dazzle paint an evident symbol of an open door to the savage ways that want to get out inside of every man.
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